An introduction to some of the most astonishing architectural monuments the world has ever known—Gothic cathedrals. We shall study the art, literature, intellectual life, economics, and new social arrangements that arose in the shadow of the cathedrals and that were such an important part of the revival of cities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The goal of the course is a better appreciation of the High Middle Ages, a world that is still recognizably our own.

AK

Very interesting and well worth my time taking this course. I helped me appreciate not only the significance of the cathedrals, but the thinking and motivation of the medieval people.

JC

Jul 11, 2018

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A truly sublime course that takes you on a remarkable journey of discovery, in the safe and knowledgeable hands of our eminent guide, Howard Bloch Sterling Professor of French.

From the lesson

Saints and Kings

In Module 8 we explore Saint Louis’s building of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris as a house of glass, a new Ark of the Covenant, to house the relics he had amassed. Using Jean de Joinville’s Life of Saint-Louis as our source, we encounter the Saint King’s life as a crusader, his death, canonization, and the miracles performed by his body on his way to sainthood.

Taught By

Howard Bloch

Sterling Professor of French

Transcript

In the program of windows, we find in the apse an unfolding of the New Testament, which dominates the east end of the apse just as the Old Testament dominates the north and south walls of the nave. In this way, the Passion, which stands over the altar in the direction of the middle-east, is surrounded by a vast historical commentary, which situates the redemption as the centerpiece in the history of the world. In the Sainte Chapelle we are surrounded by the Bible, and it is even been suggested that the pattern of some of the Windows conforms to the manuscript illuminations founded in what were known as Moralized Bibles, some of which were to be found in Paris in the 13th century. These moralized Bibles contain commentary, which has been compared to the detail with which some of the Windows of the Sainte Chapelle illuminate biblical history. For example the, episode of The Golden Calf from the Book of Exodus fills six panels. 40 scenes are devoted to the heroine Judith. 124 panels are devoted to Queen Esther. Here we see the upper part of the Passion Window depicting scenes after the crucifixion. Moving from bottom to top, we find holy women at the tomb. The descent of Christ to limbo. The appearance of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene. And here we see Mary Magdalene with two apostles possibly announcing the resurrection to them. Here we see in the Saine Chapelle Passion Window, Jesus's meeting with the disciples on the way to Emmaus. And finally we see Jesus at Emmaus, in which he is recognized by the disciples, a group of angels and a series of seated apostles. The Passion Window was framed on either side by the Lancet Windows, depicting on the left scenes from the childhood of Christ and from the life of St. John the Evangelist, the Prophet of the Apocalypse and the Prophet of the Second Coming. To the right of the Passion Window stands a double Lancet, the left part of which depicts the life of St. John the Baptist and the right scenes from the Book of Daniel, containing among its panels this detail of Daniel in the Lion's Den. The king who has condemned Daniel raises his hand against him while Daniel sits peacefully on the Lion's Head. Here we see a detail from the John the Baptist window Showing Salome dancing and below, Salome standing holding a plate to receive John the Baptist's head, which is about to fall. The treasury of Saint Chapelle once held the occipital bone of the skull of John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, the precursor. To the left of the evangelists' window, on the northeast part of the apse, we find another double lancet, whose right-hand panels contain a Tree of Jesse, like the one we have seen at Saint-Denis and Chartres. Here is a detail from the Jesse window. The left-hand section of the lancet is devoted to the prophecies of Isaiah, prophet of the incarnation, when he prophesized that a rod will grow out of the line of Jesse. And here we see the scene of the angels' enunciation to Isaiah that a virgin will conceive, from Isaiah 7:14. And here a detail from one of the panels of the Isaiah window, showing the prophet warning against idols. The sign he is pointing to says, "Mohamet," Muhammed, which is not a neutral detail in a chapel window built on the eve of the seventh crusade. On the right of the baptist Daniel window are the stories of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, one of which is this detail of Ezekiel, which is interesting for us because it shows not only Ezekiel's wheel from his vision but an early version of the tetramorph, which we have seen on the tympanum of the central door of the royal portal at Chartres, and on the glass of the Chartres West rose. Mark the lion, Luke the ox, John the eagle, Matthew the man. Thus the prophets of the redemption are placed close to the passion, as what is known as the prophetic cycle makes the transition from the Old Testament to the New, and from the windows of the New Testament to the Old, which surround them on either side of the nave.

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